With the frame complete, the question was, how do you replicate rare parts. The seat post topper- fortunately, with my English Lotus frame, I received 2 seat post toppers. The only problem, was one was missing some parts. A friend in England, part of the Lotus 110 club, was able to supply me the missing pieces. Thanks Paul Greasley!
The cranks. Now, these are rarer than the Lotus frames. Approx 15 sets were made- for Chris Boardman, the GT Superbike project, and the French Olympic Games track cycling team. This project has been on the go for about 2 1/2 years, and I was looking for a set of the cranks for pretty much the whole time. I had a friend (Jason Rico) in California keeping an eye out for me. We were having no luck, and I had started modifying other cranks and playing around with turning an existing chainring into a ‘carbon and alloy’ version, when out of the blue, I received a message. Jason had been sending photos of his bikes to a mate, who was sending photos of his back, and there, in one of them, was a track bike with the crankset on. Jason enquired wether there was a chance the cranks could be sold, he had a mate needing some for a project. ‘Not the guy at Forza?’ Came the answer. Yes! From there, Jason put us in touch, and I can not thank Pete Coulson enough, for allowing me to purchase the cranks for this build. To be able to have original components, only serves to give people a ‘real feel’, to how the original is. The wheels, obviously are available out there, so finding the correct version Mavic io front wheel, and Mavic Comete rear disc was relatively easy.
There is one item though, I still have not been able to find. A dark blue, San Marco ‘non slip’ HDP saddle. I have a light blue version, which didn’t quite look right, and after fruitless attempts to get a well known company to recover a saddle for me, I decided to cover a saddle myself. It may be missing the stitching, but, for now, it is the correct colour and suits the bike well.
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